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UPSC CSE Mains 2023 — History Questions with Answers
All 56 History previous-year questions from UPSC CSE Mains 2023, each with the correct answer and a full explanation. Practise them as a free, timed mock test with instant scoring.
Practice History as a timed test →- Q1.Freedom Struggle
What was the difference between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore in their approach towards education and nationalism?
- Q2.World History
Bring out the socio-economic effects of the introduction of railways in different countries of the world.
- Q3.Medieval & Source History
What were the major technological changes introduced during the Sultanate period? How did those technological changes influence Indian society?
- Q4.World History
How did colonial rule affect the tribals in India and what was the tribal response to the colonial oppression?
- Q5.History Optional — Paper I
Identify the following places marked on the map supplied to you and write a short note of about 30 words on each of them in your Question-cum-Answer Booklet. Locational hints for each of the places marked on the map are given below seriatim: (i) Neolithic site (ii) Site of Mother and Child Terracotta Figure (iii) Hoard of Gupta Coin (iv) Site of botanical remains (v) Harappan site with mud-brick platform (vi) Mauryan reservoir site (vii) Capital of Maitraka dynasty (viii) Dockyard (ix) Rock shelter (x) Stone axe factory (xi) Satavahana inscription site (xii) Minor rock inscription of Ashoka (xiii) Buddhist Stupa (xiv) Mesolithic site (xv) Iron smelting workshop (xvi) Megalithic site (xvii) Temple site dedicated to Surya (xviii) Roman factory site (xix) Site of Muvar Koil (Temple of Three) (xx) Megalith stone site
- Q6.History Optional — Paper I
“The Neolithic Age represents a revolution due to significant changes that took place during this period.” Examine.
- Q7.History Optional — Paper I
The Indus-Saraswati cultural zone exhibited both homogeneity and diversity. Discuss.
- Q8.History Optional — Paper I
How do the comparative study of languages, archaeological sources and vast corpus of Vedic literature help to determine the Aryan problem in Indian history? Discuss.
- Q9.History Optional — Paper I
How far the Sangam literature acts as a window into the social and cultural traditions of ancient South India?
- Q10.History Optional — Paper I
Analyze the contours of imperial ideology as exhibited during the Mauryan period.
- Q11.History Optional — Paper I
Evaluate the status of women in the Gupta period as compared to the pre-Gupta era.
- Q12.History Optional — Paper I
Analyze the tenets, spread and impact of the Bhakti Movement.
- Q13.History Optional — Paper I
How far temple architecture under the Cholas became more refined and grandiose as compared to the early South Indian temple architecture style?
- Q14.History Optional — Paper I
Is it correct to say that the post-Gupta period was remarkable for the expansion of religious cults in India?
- Q15.History Optional — Paper I
Discuss the various proponents of Indian feudalism.
- Q16.History Optional — Paper I
Examine the defects in Alberuni’s assessment of the Indian society.
- Q17.History Optional — Paper I
Discuss the importance of Sufic literature as an important source of history.
- Q18.History Optional — Paper I
What factors do you attribute for the decline of the Delhi Sultanate?
- Q19.History Optional — Paper I
The motive of Alauddin Khalji’s agrarian policy was to curb the powers of the intermediaries. Examine the measures which he adopted to achieve his objective.
- Q20.History Optional — Paper I
Discuss the role of Nur Jahan in the Mughal court politics during the reign of Jahangir.
- Q21.History Optional — Paper I
Why did Balban prefer ‘consolidation’ over ‘expansion’ of the Delhi Sultanate?
- Q22.History Optional — Paper I
What features of European paintings were incorporated in the Mughal miniature painting?
- Q23.History Optional — Paper I
The Marathas posed a significant threat to the integrity of the Mughal Empire. Discuss.
- Q24.History Optional — Paper I
“Haidar Ali was born to build an empire, and Tipu Sultan to lose one”. Comment.
- Q25.History Optional — Paper I
Analyze the rise of the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh.
- Q26.History Optional — Paper I
Mughal architecture was syncretic in character. Comment.
- Q27.History Optional — Paper I
The economy of India was not stagnant in the eighteenth century. Discuss.
- Q28.History Optional — Paper I
Discuss the nature of the Mughal State under Akbar.
- Q29.History Optional — Paper II
“Colonialism had a twisted logic of its own for commercialization. It emerges on analysis to have been often an artificial and forced process.”
- Q30.History Optional — Paper II
After 1857, “the peasants emerged as the main force in agrarian movements.”
- Q31.History Optional — Paper II
“Awakened political consciousness of Indian masses, bound with dishonourable and cowardly insults of the British led to the movement of Non-Cooperation.”
- Q32.History Optional — Paper II
When Gandhiji launched the Civil Disobedience Movement he was “desperately in search of an effective formula.”
- Q33.History Optional — Paper II
“If abdication of British responsibility at the time of transfer of power was callous, the speed with which it was done made it worse.”
- Q34.History Optional — Paper II
The Carnatic Wars, the Anglo-Mysore Wars and the Anglo-Maratha Wars had virtually eliminated the French front the contest of supremacy in South India. Discuss.
- Q35.History Optional — Paper II
While introducing the Indian Councils Bill of 1861, the British thought that the only Government suitable for India ‘is a despotism controlled from home’. Comment.
- Q36.History Optional — Paper II
The root of the whole question behind the Indigo Revolt ‘is the struggle to make the raiyats grow indigo plants without paying them the price of it’. Analyse.
- Q37.History Optional — Paper II
Do you agree that ‘the decline of traditional Indian artisan production was a fact, sad but inevitable’? Discuss.
- Q38.History Optional — Paper II
The historical significance of tribal and peasant uprisings in India ‘lies in that they established strong and valuable traditions of resistance to British rule’. Discuss.
- Q39.History Optional — Paper II
To accomplish the aims of education, ‘political propaganda and formation as well as propagation of nationalist ideology’, the press became the chief instrument. Comment.
- Q40.History Optional — Paper II
The universalist perspective of socio-religious reform movements was not a ‘purely philosophic concern; it strongly influenced the political and social outlook of the time’. Examine.
- Q41.History Optional — Paper II
The Congress Socialist Party agenda was not to cut off from the Congress, but ‘intended to give the Congress and the national movement a socialist direction’. Analyse.
- Q42.History Optional — Paper II
How did the factionalised Dalit leadership in Hyderabad undergo a period of intense re-organization between 1948 and 1953?
- Q43.History Optional — Paper II
“The American War of Independence finally ended in 1783 when Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States of America.”
- Q44.History Optional — Paper II
“The Chartist Movement not only fulfilled some of the demands of the middle class, but its ramifications were felt among the working class and the colonies as well.”
- Q45.History Optional — Paper II
“The Revolutions of 1848 were shaped by the ideas of democracy and nationalism.”
- Q46.History Optional — Paper II
“The British imperialism in South Africa from 1867 to 1902 was influenced to a large extent by the capitalist mining of diamonds.”
- Q47.History Optional — Paper II
“The supremacy of USA after the end of Cold War had its challenges as well.”
- Q48.History Optional — Paper II
The philosophers and thinkers may have laid the foundation of the French Revolution, but it was precipitated by social and economic reasons. Explain.
- Q49.History Optional — Paper II
Marxian socialism claims itself to be a scientific socialist theory capable of explaining the history of humankind. Discuss.
- Q50.History Optional — Paper II
Enlightenment was not confined to scientific revolution alone, but humanism and ideas of progress too were its inseparable constituents. Examine.
- Q51.History Optional — Paper II
The impact of industrial revolution on the middle class world view is reflected in the views of Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus and Jeremy Bentham. Comment.
- Q52.History Optional — Paper II
Discuss the different stages of the unification of Italy from 1848 to the occupation of Rome in 1870.
- Q53.History Optional — Paper II
The Treaty of Versailles contained in itself the seeds of the Second World War. Examine.
- Q54.History Optional — Paper II
“UNO was the necessity of the time when the World War II ended.” Critically examine its achievements and shortcomings.
- Q55.History Optional — Paper II
The historical causes for the rise of anti-colonial movement in South-East Asia were cultural differences, spread of western education and the emergence of Communist ideas. Discuss.
- Q56.History Optional — Paper II
Arab nationalism was not only a cultural movement, but also an anti-colonial struggle. Comment.
UPSC CSE Mains 2023 — other subjects
History — other years
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